Gifts in Toronto

Gifts in Toronto: from a shiva fruit basket to a birthday cake

Among gifts in Toronto, a fruit basket sometimes does what flowers cannot: in Jewish tradition a family sitting shiva, the seven days of mourning, is sent a basket of fruit or kosher food rather than flowers. In a city with so many communities, that is worth knowing before you order. For most other homes the occasion decides between a cake, balloons, a bear and a basket, and the real question is who opens the door and how long the gift has to wait once it arrives.

Bento cake or whole cake: who takes the box at a Toronto door

A bento cake is small enough to sit on one desk, boxed in cardboard with a short message piped on the icing for the person it's for. It suits someone working alone or living alone, and a version tied to a birthday is sold as a Bento Cake with Zodiac Sign. A whole cake answers a different question: it feeds a table, not a desk, so it fits a gathering rather than one recipient.

Cupcakes solve the same problem as a whole cake at office scale: a box for a team, sent as several portions rather than one.

A creamed cake shouldn't sit at room temperature for more than two hours, so the question isn't whether it survives the drive across Toronto but who takes it in once it's there. The courier doesn't call ahead unless the sender asks, and for a cake that call is worth requesting so someone is home to receive it. With the sender's go-ahead, a concierge can sign for the box instead; where a building needs a buzz-in, the courier rings from the door. Both bento and whole formats are under bento cakes and cupcakes.

Hampers and fruit baskets for a house in mourning or a family table

A fruit basket works where cake and balloons don't: a shiva house is a place to bring something, not something festive. The seven days of mourning are a time when a visitor arrives with food rather than flowers, and a basket of fruit or kosher items reads as support rather than celebration. It's meant for a home where people come to sit with the family.

Kosher status isn't promised sight unseen. Where it matters, the occasion and its requirements are worth describing in a chat message first; a manager sends photo options with prices before anything is paid for.

Where flowers are welcome, a combination of flowers and a gift in one order covers both at once, and a whole cake is the format for a table everyone sits around. Family dates on the calendar, Thanksgiving among them, are covered on Toronto's flower calendar. The baskets themselves are under hampers and fruit baskets, and the combined option is flower combos.

Balloon fountains and clouds for a Financial District office

The Financial District's towers along Bay Street mean an office gift usually has to find one floor in one building, not a front door. Formats built for that setting include several balloons weighted into a fountain, a tight cluster called a cloud, and a helium balloon shut inside a box as a surprise when it's opened.

Latex only holds helium for about half a day, so a fountain or cloud meant for an office date should arrive in the morning rather than the afternoon. Foil shapes, a star or a heart, hold their lift for several days, which means a recipient can take one home at the end of the week instead of leaving it behind at the desk.

An office delivery needs the company name and the floor. Where a lobby runs a pass system, the gift goes through reception, and the sender is told who signed for it. The full format range sits under helium balloons.

Gift delivery in Toronto beside a bouquet: bears, sweets and combos

A plush bear is the straightforward soft toy; a bear made of preserved roses is the other option, built from real roses with their sap replaced by a glycerine-based solution, which keeps them holding their shape for one to three years rather than one week. Belgian chocolate is worth a word of reassurance in a Toronto July: cocoa butter melts at 34 to 38 degrees, and the pale bloom a bar gets after warming up isn't spoiled chocolate, just melted and reset.

Balloons, sweets and a soft toy can all be added into a basket alongside a bouquet rather than sent as separate parcels, and a card with a message costs nothing extra. Where the gifts are going to different addresses, delivery is charged per address, not once for the whole order. If there's no address to give, the recipient's phone number is enough to work from.

Most orders are handed over on the day they are placed, and the exact window shows on the bouquet's own page rather than here. Delivery in central Toronto is free, and the outer zones carry a fixed charge; both are covered on delivery zones. The soft toys and sweets sit under soft toys and sweet gifts.

Starting with the recipient narrows things down fastest: a desk or a doorway points to bento cakes and cupcakes, an office date to helium balloons, and a house of visitors to hampers and fruit baskets. Sending a gift alongside flowers is covered under gifts to go with bouquets.